SEVEN SISTERS OF ELDONIAN SPACE
'Seven Sisters Of Eldonian Space' is a collaborative exhibition that attempts to explore the different characteristics and inner qualities of a group of seven women affected by dementia. Using poetry, art and selected music, it reflects on issues of personal identity and on local history, spirituality and ageing. It was exhibited at 'Arts Hub 47' on Lark Lane, Liverpool in July 2016 and at 'Unity Theatre', Liverpool, in November 2016.
Shekinah, Shechinah, or Schechinah (Hebrew: שְׁכִינָה)
Gender: Feminine
Shekinah is the English transliteration of a Hebrew noun meaning dwelling or settling, and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God and cosmic glory.
Prologue
To some degree
Everybody works in circles
One might chase her children
Or go look for an early Spring
Perhaps returning home
In search of a new grasp
On old Mother time
One sets herself out
Within each and every daily task
Let’s not suggest we are at some distance
From the circle path that our Sisters take
Are we any more certain?
Do we not just take guesses at this game?
About direction, stride, where to rest?
Those repeated behaviours reveal habits ingrained
Some moments we wait on
‘To bring to bloom’ fragments of the past
It’s a lonely life when our circle descends
And fast …
And I do guess …
At what it is that draws them
At different step
To dining room light?
Dwelling at sacred tables
Sound
Family
Souls
Shekinah
In orbit
Fraternity
Liverpool style
Spirit
PAT
But never mind such histories
Pat’s circles are glorious
They beam with every shade and spark
They are the circles of clarity
And of charity
Of the now, and all its rising power
Circles that know how to enrich a truth
Encounter
Yeah …that truth!
Of the ‘million-petalled flower’
Being
Here
Do not be afraid
Pat is onto our need for colours
The force of her Peace
Like the slow swapping of mementos
The force of it
Present
A Peace prized open
The smile rotates throughout
Yes.
It flowers in the smile
For the Spirit also circles
When something pleads such importance
Overhead where railway once met dock
And both ship and train return
The old Rotunda rises
Boundaries broken like streets
Film reels in
The Spirit circles
It seems to want to take its hold
It is a statement of the person
Behind the mask
It is the higher self
Looking down again
The bright and the pure essence
Of a cherished form
Cherished form is what she keeps
And offering a hand
What more can we give?
Start with a hand
Go
See what the circle is telling us
Strength
NELLIE H.
What ocean is going to stop me?
What land is going to restrict me?
The strength I need is the Strength I have
People sharing in the precious drift of the day
Mary helping out with a heavy door
Go on then…
That’s my work
A woman’s work
In the Village
The tide-like drift
A social surge
Is the life I have
The life of kinship
For I love the company of company
Spaces with living things
Is the place where I live
I move in music towards them
Between rhythm and word
I love the essence of the room
The strong essence of the room
And the room with the scent
And with the touch of others
The tables that need to be cleared
Ahead of our next phase
…so tomorrow shall arise …
For another group to gather
I move in music towards them
Searching some Merseybeat truths
No Fury
Is this then not a type of love she reveals?
A longing love for community
And the Strength of the individual here
Sitting right amidst it
Believing in it
Behind it
My work
A woman’s work
Nellie
Simplicity
RITA
Dance Away Rita
Get up and dance it out
Sunlit evenings
Where there are the finest of gowns
And dresses
Displayed in town
And on TV now
Like only a sunlit evening can hold
Our hearts
Our heads
It all ‘feels fine’
Because there
Before sound
It is the simple dance
That shines right through
She feels fine
Plainly
Knowing the score with another
Knowing if they speak our Scouse tongue
The simple joy shines through
When Rita meets you
Like a clear act of God
Bold
Street sense
Does she feel endangered?
No, she is a child here
So are you
What harm can you possibly do?
For here
She is a child
A mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother
And don’t she see you?
…Lovely
And don’t she know You?
…Lovely
Let’s celebrate it again
Sunlit evenings
Let’s get as close as possible to them again
Nights lit like those at the Locarno
With our Tommy and Alice
With Lily and Dennis
Starting with the catalyst of our choreographed form
And she’s up dancing
Away
Brave a bit of everyday
Simplicity
And we’re away
Again
Sincerity
EILEEN
Looking to the ways of Spring
And to the animals that shape lives
Life
It needs some staying power.
Pressing against us tight
With her recognition of that thing
Namely
Touch
And of all the triggers and figures
That re-ignite our memories
This is a step as worthwhile
As any other
Eileen sure is a pet lover
The woman newly aware
Of the bonds across family
Of family treasure
The one sincere mother
Has just seen you cross the room
And take your seat
She will press your hand gently again
It is the honest test
That life pushes us towards
The honest test at our lowest times
And here the workings of the heart
Like feline movement
Need a physical response
Meet Eileen
As sincerely as you meet your oldest friends
On those days
When you almost forgot about them
She infuses you
Like Spring
Like an early Spring
So politely with tales
Of school
The Bluecoat
Life
Look
She’ll embrace each and every blossom
In growth
Serenity
AGNES
Tears and laughing
And
Song and longing
The quickest joke that sets you off chuckling
And we are bound
By the same span in time
In the one figure
In the one photo
A presence that cannot be gripped
Without the peace…
Of knowing it sits there
A serene kind
A place of serenity she finds
Agnes will pick you up by the hand
And open the days of her love for you
To see them true
Agnes will pick you up
She has an ear for each sound coming through
Notes from ‘Brides and Brothers’ linger
In sugary nostalgia
Hands clasped beyond to Bill
She has an ear for a quieter way
For peace building
Her piano playing can be soft
Her movement can be slow
Sometimes she even hears the wind
From a Mersey river estuary nearby
And when serenity breezes in
And abruptly stays
There, there…
Is the one picture she will paint
Shape
Sketch in faces clear
Listen as the calm draws near
Openings
We can have them too
As tears and laughter
And song and longings
Abide
Pass
And Agnes listens
Her Tony’s near
We can learn
We can listen
Her Tony’s near
It’s near
Stillness
NELLIE W.
There we see it
And as our daylight streams in
Through each window
To be nearest to it
Matters
Because
It voices
That we’re onto something
It seems to offer a sphere renewed
Interior renewed
In a Village setting
In dining room light
That we all help create
Nellie begins to unravel
Things loosen from her grip
It’s a trusted place
Where she begins to sit again
To settle
In her stillness comes that unique smile
Gold
Breaking bright through
As the surface peels
It’s as it is
With the rough and the smooth
Of any landscape
Of any Liverpool life
She takes account of belonging again
It needs the play of time
I guess
What can we know?
But observe the stillness
And the pure and the patient things
And the joy behind the patient things
One Sister in our Eldonian space
Amidst this resilient community
The joy Nellie brings…
Tea, biscuits, family ties, kid aware again, smiling
Warm daylight
A freedom
Joy she brings
From out of those brighter inner rooms
That she knows lie still
Here in a space renewed
Happiness in nearness
Like a ground sense
Within
Sanctuary
SHEILA
Coping with days
And the weight of the day
Can hurt our minds
Like high volumes
Overstretching
The uncertain
Lying heavy on rainy January days
Something
Anything
Things in some random chain
Owning our minds
In that way
So…
Watch Sheila find her space
Trace it beyond all that 24/7 business
She lets herself inhabit it
Looks near to re-gain it
She moves gracefully into the love
Of a little self-knowledge
Into the love of a sensitive heart
For in that Sanctuary
The Gone
She knows that she can build again
That’s the seaside air for you
Her younger years spent in Brighton
Felt again in our docklands region
Now it’s about the nearness of the faces
The door opening onto all things
Those faces
Important
Imported
Alive before us
Whom she holds so dear
The Sanctuary
Of the warm light
Of connection
Where things can still grow
Growing
Buds not yet in blossom
But somehow sharing
In the precious drift of the day
And where any pain can now repose
Almost coast out of sight
Sheila is safe within today
Any day
She’s going to make this place ‘spick ‘n span’
Her Sanctuary can be restored
Right here
Amid the cups and the plates
With our smiles too…
They should show up more often!
Epilogue
And I still muse …
On what it is that draws them
At different step
To this dwelling
Sound
Family
Souls
Shekinah
In orbit
Fraternity
Liverpool style
To some degree
Everybody works in circles.
One Sister goes chasing her children
Another looks for an earlier Spring
This Sister has perhaps returned home
That Sister searches for a new twist
On old Mother time
Here
A Sister sets herself out
Within each and every daily task
There
A Sister repeats only behaviours
Habits ingrained
Then
…something breaks through at my Sister’s table …
In dining room light
Where we all help to shape
These minor Miracles
Because our people still move
And our people still feel
Good things recur
Those things can be traced
Let’s not suggest we are at some distance
From the Seven Sisters Of Eldonian Space
‘Let this presence settle into our bones and allow our souls the freedom to sing, to dance, to praise and to love, it is there for each and every one of us’
(St. Teresa Of Avila)
